Climate action

Fair, nature-based, local, resource-saving and diverse

Measures taken to combat or adapt to climate change need to take the big picture into account. The hurdles we face are not only environmental, but increasingly also of a social and economic nature. We cannot, for example, rely on high-tech fixes such as carbon capture and storage that only bypass the root of the problem, encouraging society to go about its resource intensive business as usual. Even putting safety concerns aside, we cannot look to nuclear energy as the answer when we have no sustainable solution for the waste it creates.

Climate Alliance thus stands behind climate action that is

FAIR

Climate action must be just. It should promote the wellbeing of all the world’s peoples, regardless of culture, beliefs, gender, location, or socio-economic status, in harmony with the natural world.

NATURE-BASED

Climate action cannot be based on extraction and depletion. Instead, it must replenish and regenerate, contributing to sustainable, closed-loop systems that bring the needs of society into harmony with nature.

LOCAL

A city’s sphere of influence is local by nature. By further concentrating on the local sourcing of goods and energy as part of climate policy, cities can boost their resilience to crises and add value to their own economies.

RESOURCE-SAVING

Climate action measures in Climate Alliance member municipalities must lead to the use of fewer resources, not use more of them. This means a focus on both resource efficiency (doing more with less) and resource conservation (using less to begin with).

DIVERSE

There is strength in diversity. Each town, city and district is unique. Making optimal use of the differences means that individual climate solutions and their implementation will vary from place to place. There is no one size fits all answer.

In this way Climate Alliance cities and towns are squarely focused on taking a holistic and truly sustainable approach to climate change.